Karine Polwart
Playing Karine Polwart Clip "Fire Thief"©
BIOGRAPHY
Winner of “Best Album”, “Best Original Song” and the “Horizon Award” for Best Emerging Artist at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2005
Scottish Borders based singer-songwriter Karine Polwart established herself at the forefront of the UK folk-roots scene after scooping three prizes at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in February 2005. Her prize-winning debut CD Faultlines resonated with roots influences but its incisively intelligent lyrics and sense of musical adventure gave it a resolutely contemporary sensibility.
Despite Karine’s recognition as an emerging talent and her many years of apprenticeship on the international folk-roots scene with traditional Scots groups Battlefield Band and Malinky make her a vibrant communicator in live performance. In her writing, she combines the economy and universality of the folk storytelling tradition with the kind of probing intellect and lyrical attention to uncertainty you’d expect from someone with a Masters degree in philosophical inquiry.
Her disturbing tales of twentieth century genocide, TV executions and sex trafficking betray her background as an anti-violence and children’s rights activist. But this dark streak is offset by wistful musings upon the beauty of the night sky, comic tales of lovelorn gas installers and wry observations on the links between cosmetic dentistry and global domination. Indeed her pervasive sense of hope and possibility prove she’s a writer and musician who understands both the best and the worst that the world has to offer. By telling stories, painting pictures and posing questions, Karine succeeds in her aim to communicate profoundly personal and quietly political messages without posturing and with plenty of room for individual interpretation. Her humanity and sense of justice, as well as her warmth and wit, shine through. She says, “The thing I love most of all about writing songs is the meanings they take on for people who hear them. More than anything else I want to move people or make them think. And I’m really humbled by the stories they tell me about their lives and experiences as a result.”
REVIEW QUOTES
“an effortless sounding gem” UNCUT, March 2005
“melodic and literate songs … her wealth of experience has given her writing a satisfying depth and rounded wisdom” THE TIMES, January 2005
“exceptional songwriting” SONGLINES, June 2004
"a songwriter of rare power ... her penetrating, understated brilliance with words and melody can give a single line of velvet-voiced metaphor the ability to raise neck hairs" MOJO, May 2004
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